The Abelard School

As part of our ongoing commitment to forge links with the academic, scientific, artistic and professional communities of Toronto, the Abelard School has hosted numerous evening lectures by eminent Torontonians from the fields of literature, music, law, philosophy, advertising, film, journalism, medicine, forensics, science and technology and the voluntary sector. This year we were very pleased to introduce Jim Ruxton to our students and parents, in a lively evening at the Chapters Bookstore on Bloor Street. Mr. Ruxton received his M.A.Sc in electrical engineering at the University of Ottawa in 1988. Between 1988 and 1991 he worked as an engineer designing various satellite communication devices. In 1991 he went to the Ontario College of Art and Design to explore combining electronics and art. In 1993 he graduated with an A.O.C.A and was chosen as a medal recipient. Since 1993 he has worked in Toronto as an engineer/artist bringing electronics into various fields of the arts. He is the sole proprietor of Cinematronics, a company created to service the film special effects industry. His electronic props and special devices have been used in numerous films and T.V. series. As well as creating his own installation art he collaborates in the areas of dance, theatre and film to create interactive kinetic environments, allowing the viewers or performers to alter the space. He has collaborated with a number of well known Canadian artists including Graham Smith, Max Dean, Rae Davis, Barbara Sternberg, Daniel Olson, Camille Turner ,Veronica Verkley, Phillip Barker, Nancy Patterson and Nilan Perera. He has also collaborated with dancers Mitch Kirsch and Jane Townsend, Susanna Hood, Katherine Duncanson and Cathy Gordon Marsh. Jim has designed a number of special machines for creating specific effects including a device which produces a moving projection effect for Atom Egoyan's opera Salome and special motor controllers for pyrotechnics on the last KISS world tour. He has also produced the electronics for exhibits at the Boston Museum of Science, the Royal Ontario Museum the Vancouver Science Centre and recently the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art. Mr. Ruxton is the co-founder of the annual Subtle Technologies conference. Subtle Technologies is an annual, four-day multidisciplinary event exploring the complex and subtle relationships between art and science. Its mandate is to blur the boundaries between art and science, presenting symposia, exhibitions and performances that juxtapose cutting-edge artistic endeavours and scientific exploration. The festival is unique in Canada in its acknowledgement of science as a major cultural force. We not only feature science and mathematics in end-result technologies, but celebrate science in its theoretical form, exposing our audience to the research and ideas yet to be fully integrated into the market or cultural practices. The conference provides a public showcase for groundbreaking work by artists and scientists. It has a well respected international reputation and features some of the leading artists and scientists around the world. The Abelard School would like to thank Jim Ruxton for donating his time to speak with our students and parents.

The school Formal is, of course, the social highlight of the Abelard calendar. Held each June at a location selected by the Formal Committee, the evening is an opportunity for students and teachers to dress in finery, eat wonderful food, mingle, dance and celebrate the end of another successful school year. Venues have included Bodega Restaurant, Adriatico Restaurant and the University of Toronto Faculty Club. Other popular social events include evening trips to Soulpepper theatre, the Canadian Opera Company, literary readings and the cinema. Various classes also sponsor theme meals ? this past year saw both Roman and Renaissance lunches and a Soiree Francophone. Fundraising lunches and dinners, both at the school and at local restaurants are also included in the Abelard gastronomical experience. Of course, with all that fine dining, we need some active living to work off the excess, and so we include in our calendar events such as the Abelard 5K run for charity on Toronto Island in the fall and Ski trips to Mount St. Louis in the winter. School clubs change from year to year, following student interest, but have included chess, film, debating and a number of book clubs. Once students graduate from Abelard they remain a vital part of the school?s social life, and many attend our Holiday party in December and our Graduation and end-of-year reception at The Arts and Letters Club in June, as well as the annual alumni reunion. Those in Toronto drop by the school for frequent informal visits, and those studying abroad play host to traveling students and teachers in the summer months. Abelardians are fond of travel, and most years see official school trips allowing students to experience first-hand the cultures and works of art they have studied and to practice their foreign languages. Our teachers have led trips to Russia, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and the U.S. Our students also have the opportunity to meet students from other countries when they participate in such events as the Model United Nations in New York.

For two nights this past May, the students of The Abelard School performed Friederich Durrenmatt's The Physicists at the St. Vladimir Theatre at The University of Toronto to sold-out crowds. The play was sponsored by the U of T Department of Physics in honour of Einstein Year and the International Year of Physics. Here, Gabe Deroche (now studying International Relations at U of T's Trinity College) looks back at the final performance of his high school career: Voice Over (GABE'S voice): The play's done. Now the nostalgia kicks in. Though I thought I'd have a bit more nostalgia than I do. As much as I love everyone in the cast (that's showbiz speak for "I find most of you tolerable") I'm quite glad it's over. Not to say that it wasn't a glorious run. It was. There can be no doubt about that. After months of rehearsal, intense preparation, and Ira attempting every possible delivery of the word "Why?" (after three weeks he settled on a descending tone with a circular hand gesture) we finally opened to rave reviews. Friday night we played host to a rather raucous audience (chirping cell phone-like devices and thunderous laughter), while on Saturday, the audience was more pensive and subdued, though they also laughed frequently" Roll credits. GABE DEROCHE stands outside Trinity St. Paul's Church at the intersection of Bloor and Spadina waiting for MS. D'ANGELO to pick him up and give him a ride home. It is Friday afternoon, a full week after the two-night run of The Physicists in which Gabe played M�s. A MAN and WOMAN approach. They are holding hands. They see Gabe, and walk over to him. MAN: Hi. Umm, we just wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed your performance in The Physicists. GABE: Oh wow, thanks so much. WOMAN: Yeah, I was amazed at the amount of depth you gave your character. MAN: We really had a good time. GABE: Thank you. I'm so glad you could come. They walk off. Gabe absorbs what has just happened. He takes a deep breath. GABE: (Aside) I'm a celebrity!

In the fall of 2005 the Abelard School was invited to take part in a documentary film about Albert Einstein that was being made by the Goethe Institute and the Max Planck Institute in Berlin. This film commemorates the hundredth anniversary of Einstein's theory of relativity, a theory which revolutionalized our concepts of space and time. All around the world in cities ranging from Hong Kong to Cape Town to New York, people in various stations of life were asked their impressions on what Einstein meant to them. Four segments of this film were shot in Toronto, one of them at the Abelard School. In a round-table format, the six students in our grade 12 philosophy class were asked to discuss how the thought processes employed by the young Albert Einstein helped him to come to a new knowledge and understanding of the world. Specifically, the students analyzed how Einstein's method of using imaginative thought experiments (in conjunction with the traditional scientific approach) was relevant to their own education and search for knowledge. All the segments were sent to Germany where they were edited and assembled into the film "All about Einstein: Voices on Einstein from around the World". This film has already been shown in several festivals and has aired on German television. Needless to say, our students found this a challenging and rewarding educational experience, and we're proud to say they came through with flying colours. If you're interested in seeing our students' five-minute contribution to this film, please visit our website

It's sometimes difficult to describe my former high school to people I meet now, because when I mention the fact that its population reaches roughly 50 students, this tends to become their focal point of interest. And yet they're right to be intrigued, since it is precisely Abelard's small student population and class sizes that gave me the unique and enriched learning experience I'm fortunate to have received. It was at Abelard that I developed an interest in modern languages, and because my French and Italian classes both held only two other students, we could constantly practice conversation and receive individual feedback and instruction. When asked a question, it was no longer possible to mumble something incomprehensible and hope the teacher moved on to someone else. One discovered, with a little patience, that the answer could always be found somewhere. I also have fond memories of my Philosophy and Writers' Craft classes, which, though larger in number at eight or nine students apiece, were always full of lively discussions, led by our teachers but fueled by us eager students. Everyone seemed to really want to be there in the classroom, to listen to others' ideas and to have their ideas heard. And because we could count our classmates on the fingers of both hands, this was not only entirely possible but also fully expected. The social atmosphere of Abelard was very friendly, almost familial - odd as that may seem. In some ways it felt like we had bypassed a lot of the stereotypical high school social pressures and elitism because we were such a small group; we couldn't afford to be choosy amongst one another, and surprisingly enough, we found we rather liked each other's eccentricities. In the way that a good play contains a cast of strong and diverse characters, every individual at Abelard had something important to contribute to the school environment. In fact, some of my closest friends now are people that I met during my Abelard years, a fact which says a good deal considering I graduated five years ago. The teachers, too, made a tremendous impact on all of us, taking on the role of educators, mentors, role models and friends. They are the pillars' some of them quite literally so, being its founders - of the Abelard School. When I graduated from Abelard, I went to the UofT on a partial scholarship, which I kept up for the next four years. I graduated from university a year ago, with a major in French literature and minors in English and Italian. All three of these were subjects I had taken and enjoyed at Abelard, and I felt well prepared for my university courses after my high school experience. This coming fall I am heading off to the University of Edinburgh, where I'll undertake my Master's degree in Comparative Literature. At this point, I believe I would like to continue to further my studies beyond an M.A., because, among the many things I learned at Abelard, is the

I attended the Abelard School for three years, and I was consistently impressed by its high academic standards and inspired approach to high school pedagogy. The school's unwavering dedication to its unique vision of education is apparent in all aspects of life at Abelard, and the vibrant enthusiasm of the staff infuses every class with an atmosphere of dynamic intellectual curiosity. Furthermore, the school's small size allows for a degree of intimacy and curricular flexibility that would be impossible in most conventional schools. Academically, I particularly appreciated the emphasis placed on Classical literature, philosophy, and history - disciplines which are all too often neglected in a modern world that is obsessed with pop culture and ephemeral trends. Studying the achievements of ancient generations serves not only to educate and intellectually stimulate our youth, but also provides them with a rare glimpse of aesthetic and philosophical beauty that can have a profoundly edifying effect on an impressionable adolescent. It is precisely this potential to elevate and enlighten which I consider to be the greatest asset of the Abelardian education. Our society places an excessively high premium on "cleverness" - at Abelard, students are also taught the value of wisdom. Following my graduation from Abelard in 1999, I attended the University of Toronto for four years, completing a Bachelor of Arts programme in archaeology, with an emphasis on the Scandinavian Iron Age and Viking Age. In addition to my course work, I participated in three archaeological excavations - in Belize, Jordan, and Sweden. In 2002, I also worked as a volunteer for Earthwatch, conducting arachnological and entomological research in Costa Rica. Both archaeological and biological fieldwork require a mixture of independent thinking and cooperative teamwork, and my time at Abelard had prepared me well for work of this nature. After finishing my B.A. in Toronto, I was accepted into a Master of Science programme at University College London, where I studied the palaeoecology of human societies. Human palaeoecology proved to be an ideal subject for me, since it combined my knowledge of archaeology and anthropology with my amateur enthusiasm for biology and behavioural ecology. I found that Abelard's emphasis on multidisciplinarism and critical thinking helped me to correlate data from widespread branches of the social and life sciences, such as ethnographic studies and osteoarchaeological reports. I completed my M.Sc. in September of 2004, after which I pursued further studies in Finland (Finnish culture) and China (Mandarin), before returning to Canada in the summer of 2005. I plan to spend the next year working as an academic editor at an institute affiliated with the University of Toronto, and I will then enter a Ph.D. programme in September of 2006, probably in Sweden. All of these studies have been aided and influenced by my extremely positive experience at Abelard, where I acquired a passion for learning and intellectual inquiry. I am eternally grateful to Abelard, not only for its excellent academic standards and superb staff, but also for the many lasting friendships.

I was at the Abelard School for four years, covering Grade 9 through the old OAC year. I am now studying for my BA at the University of Cambridge, reading Computer Science at Clare College. I enjoyed my time at the Abelard School a great deal, and it has prepared me very well for life "after graduation." Abelard's preparation embraced more than simply the subjects I studied. Abelard's education was not simply informative, it was formative of my character and my studies. The curriculum was itself impressive. At Abelard, I had the opportunity to pursue, in depth, a very wide range of disciplines. Those I chose ran the gamut from classical Latin to philosophy, French, Russian, mathematics and science. These were united by being approached as valid and rigourous mental disciplines. I remember learning about such a diverse range of subjects as being a real joy. I have sadly not been able to pursue all of my chosen subjects at university. Nevertheless they taught me a lesson I still use, and this is where Abelard's preparation went beyond the simply informative. I remember becoming conscious that there was and is something genuinely liberating about learning; what flowery tongues have called a citizenship in a republic of ideas. Perhaps. But practically, also a pleasure to be enjoyed, and a motivation and justification for future study. The idea of citizenship, and the sense of responsibility and independence associated with it, was something Abelard carried beyond the purely academic. The school was a place which encouraged a great deal of personal responsibility - in a place so small, students were forced to take large roles in the life of their school. This ranged from the yearbook to the graduation dance. As a result, Abelard nourished a great deal of responsibility, and independence, and interesting thought in the student body. I liked the people at Abelard; they were vibrant and interesting; and I think that had something to do with our teachers expecting us to be independent, responsible and thinking. Being treated as rational, independent people helped make us such. On graduating, I had a choice of a variety of disciplines. In the end I chose computer science, And so it was that two years ago I crossed the Atlantic to start a new university in a foreign country. This summer, I'm working as a summer research student intern in the Computer Laboratory, the Cambridge University computer science department. The job is fun; it's also a good way to get an idea of the various activities going on in the Lab, where I hope eventually to study for a PhD. Working in Cambridge allows me to stay in Cambridge and continue to work on my rowing technique and fitness. I continue to keep in touch with Abelard, and I'm still grateful for my time there. It was and is a special community.

With my secondary school diploma in hand, poised to begin my first year at Harvard University, it is now very easy for me to see how instrumental Abelard has been in getting me to where I am today. In preparing me and my classmates for higher learning, in teaching us to read and think critically, and most of all in opening our wondering eyes to the pure excitement of academic learning, Abelard has been nothing short of spectacular. I initially embarked upon my secondary studies elsewhere, but as I very soon discovered, I was never cut out for life at a big public school. I hated the anonymity of a regular school with its 30-something class sizes; I was frustrated by the bureaucratic inflexibility of some of the teachers and administrators; but worst of all, I found the course material boring and uninspiring. Some part of me didn't want to be reading watered-down textbooks - where the classic works of Western literature are briefly summarized in a 50-word blurb at the side of the page - forever. It's then not hard to imagine my excitement when, at my very first Abelard history class, my class of 10 having sat itself seminar-style around a table, a thick packet of photocopied papers was plopped down in front of me: our introductory reading assignment was the first book of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. And my coursework at Abelard only got meatier: it is a school where all the grade ten students read the Iliad, where the grade 12 English class reads Joyce's Ulysses, and where the third-year Latin class reads Vergil in the original. Academically, Abelard gives its students something to sink their teeth into. But it wasn't just the interesting and rigorous coursework that made me come to love Abelard. Guiding us through such a challenging curriculum was a set of the most intelligent, highly educated, and dedicated teachers I have ever known. Whether to help with a difficult concept, to provide extra information for curious students, or simply to chat about this or that, Abelard's teachers with their infinite patience were always there for us. And it was with this enriching encouragement that I and each of my classmates could learn to explore our own ideas - both about our schoolwork and about the world around us. Many of my non-Abelardian friends have told me horror stories about their high school experience - bored, frustrated, socially sidelined. But I never experienced anything of the sort. Abelard, with its small size, inclusive warmth, and quirky student body, sees each of its classes gel together and learn from each other - and incidentally, I think I would not be too far off the mark to boast that we have the best class discussions in the city. Abelard not only guided me towards a great university experience, but it also gave me the skills I will need to thrive there, and the sense of belonging to a community that will enable me to stand on my feet.